Thinking back on my High
School experiences with a Concord Video recorder in the late 1960's and
reading old literature produced at the dawn of the half-inch video
revolution, I had an epiphany which lead me to develop a History of Video
Equipment display for the museum.

I fondly remember when Rolling
Hills High School (now named Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills/
Rancho Palos Verdes California) acquired a Concord Video camera and
half-inch reel-to-reel video recorder in the late 60's. I was the kid
who 'was always into the technical stuff,' and so Mr. Rice,
the driver's education / health instructor / coach, drafted me to learn
how to run this unit.

The prime initial use for this
video recording system was to document football games so the coaches could
examine the plays. Aside from motocross racing, sports was really not an
interest for me. But the possibilities of the video recorder
captivated my imagination. I saw it as a useful tool for recording plays,
dance routines and documenting student life at the high school.

Football was boring, but
recording the plays and dance and music was thrilling. The best stunt
though was placing the recorder and camera on a tripod in a van with the
doors tied back. I had built an inverter so that the equipment could be
run on 12 volts. When we thought we had a clear path we would sneak
the equipment into the van and off campus. I remember tying the side
doors of the van open and running the equipment while someone else
drove the old Ford van. The van had transmission problems, and
I still remember the other guy crawling under the van to fiddle with the
linkage.

It was great fun to pull up to
a group of people and start interviewing them... I wonder what ever
happened to those tapes? I am sure they were over-written many times by
folks that followed me. We even went down into Torrance and San
Pedro a few times. The school administrators quickly put an end to
our fun and said "no more playing with valuable school
equipment." I am surprised we did not get busted sooner, but at
the school we tried to keep it low-key and did most of our creative
work far from the campus when we were working out of the van.

Another humorous side-story
was the use of old computer tape. Since the school only had the one tape
that we were given with the Concord, we would re-spool surplus
computer tape bought at Olsen Electronics. Of course the heads would wear
excessively, and we finally were able to get a supply of the real stuff as
they tired of replacing the heads...

With all of this being said,
I remember the unit looking similar to the Concord VTR-620 below. As far
as the camera goes, though, it remains a mystery to me as which exact
model it was.

I was to go into the Air Force
(fixed radios and communications equipment after high school) and
about the only contact I had with video equipment was to play around with
one of the spare CCTV cameras that was kept on hand by the CCTV
repair folks at the 2037 Communications Squadron at Luke Air Force base
located near Phoenix, Arizona. The most fun we had with one of
these cameras one night was hooking it to a microwave link I had built
with old klystrons obtained from the avionics squadron. I suppose
these units were not suitable for use or were out of spec. but they seemed
to work fine for the experiments.

Although I had somehow touched
on the beginning of the 'Half-Inch Video Revolution' I missed out on most
of it that continued on into the 70s. Now I have the chance to relive one
of the parts of my childhood I missed! -Ed
Sharpe

Concord VTR-620 B&W Videotape
Recorder/Player

This Concord VTR-620 B&W Videotape Recorder/Player
is in superb physical condition. This is a Pre-EIAJ unit. The unit powers up fine,
and when the tape sensing guide switch is made all panel functions operate
perfectly. Belts look great, still flexible not dried out, and run both
spools with no slippage, motor is strong. We will look forward to testing
this unit!

This unit is former university property that I suspect is
extremely low use, based on appearance of heads and felt pads, which show
almost zero tape residue. Interior is immaculate, pictures show it exactly
as it was when I removed the cover panel. This unit has 2 video heads,
runs 1/2" tape on 7" reels, take-up reel is included, power
cable also. 12 IPS speed with 40 minutes record / playback time. This unit
was made for Concord by Panasonic, and as a testimony to this fact it has
a NV- designator on the inside and the data plate reads "Precision
manufactured in Japan", almost identical to the Panasonic NV-8000
series. Actually this unit is reported to be virtually identical to the
Panasonic NV-8100D

One strange thing about this unit is that the "AutoClean"
switch hole has been blanked off, and there is no evidence of any switch
being installed there. Since all seals are intact and I'm 95% sure it has
never been opened up, I would have to guess that this is the way it came
from the factory, and that "AutoClean" was an option not
installed on this unit, although we have seen Panasonic units with the push button video head cleaner, visible at the top of the head drum. When pressed,
a small bristle brush just barely touches the faces of the video head tips...

The only flaw that is noticeable is the TV
Receiver input jack has the insulation chipped on one side of the jack,
but pins are fine and the jack should work no problem, easily replaced if
you wanted to.

CONCORD COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM Model
TCM-55 Video Camera.

Concord Division of Benjamin
Electronic Sound Corp. Farmingdale New York

CONCORD TCM-20 TV VIDEO CAMERA

Everyday we rescue items you
see on these pages!
What do you have hiding in a closet or garage?
What could you add to the museum displays or the library?